Tony La Russa cut right to it about Rickey Henderson, calling him “the most beloved teammate we ever had.”
La Russa said so Saturday night while sharing a stage with Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley and Jose Canseco, all of whom beamed with pride as their former skipper shared tales of the A’s “great personalities” from 35 years ago.
More tributes about Henderson will flow Saturday at 1 p.m., when a public service is held in his honor at Oracle Arena, next door to the Coliseum basepaths where Henderson forged his Hall of Fame legacy as baseball’s all-time leader in stolen bases (1,406) and runs scored (2,295).
Tickets are sold out on TicketMaster but available on the secondary market. No live stream broadcast is available, according to an Athletics spokesperson.
Hall of Famers expected to attend are La Russa, Eckersley, Joe Torre, Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Dave Winfield, along with Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch.
La Russa, invited along with Stewart to speak at the service, gave a sneak preview of his feelings last weekend at his Champions to the Rescue show benefitting his family’s latest animal welfare foundation. La Russa’s tone changed as “teary-eyed” thoughts drifted to a handful of players who’ve died, a lineup that sadly added Henderson on Dec. 20.
“He was in the middle of everything in that clubhouse,” La Russa added. “He never was a superstar. He was having fun on the plane, in the back of the bus.”
Henderson died at age 65, from complications with pneumonia.
“Rickey was, and I’m not exaggerating, one of the greatest players of all-time,” added La Russa, the A’s manager from 1986-95. “I like talking about what a great teammate he was, and the most dangerous player of our time.
“He’d get on base, steal it. The one thing I said, Rickey was a marked man. You had to stop him. Some teams tried to intimidate him. One thing I said about Rickey: You can’t scare him, you can’t stop him.”
After La Russa extolled that praise, Stewart recalled Henderson’s impact on him since their childhood days in Oakland. “I grew up with him and he’s like family to me, for as long as I’d know him,” Stewart said.
Long before joining forces with Henderson on the A’s in the late 1980s and 1990s, Stewart marveled at his athletic talents not only on the diamond but in Oakland Tech High’s backfield as a 1,000-yard rusher. “With Rickey, I wouldn’t miss a high school football game,” Stewart, 67, said. “He was a tremendous football athlete.”
He became a first-ballot Baseball Hall of Famer over his 25-year career, as a 10-time All-Star, the 1990 A.L. MVP, and World Series champion with the 1990 A’s and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.
Henderson’s stints with his hometown A’s came from 1979-84, ’89-’93, ’94-’95, and ’98. His No. 24 is retired by the franchise as it relocates from Oakland (and “Rickey Henderson Field”) to Sacramento this year before an eventual move to Las Vegas.
Related Articles
Tony La Russa’s celebrity concert launches new animal-rescue project after bitter ARF breakup
CC Sabathia goes into Baseball Hall of Fame with Bay Area pride
My Baseball Hall of Fame ballot revealed: Ichiro, David Wright, Dustin Pedroia are on it
First ballot Hall of Famer Ichiro was an A’s killer and made All-Star Game history in SF
Celebration of life for Rickey Henderson, greatest Oakland A’s player, will be held at the Arena
Henderson was a 1976 fourth-round draft pick by the A’s. He made his big-league debut three years later, then three years after that, he set a record with 130 stolen bases in 1982. His journeyman career would take him away to the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres (twice), Anaheim Angels, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers.
But he returned to the Coliseum for the A’s finale last Sept. 26, throwing out the first pitch alongside Stewart. Henderson came back for a final goodbye a month later as part of Reggie Jackson’s Softball Classic with other former stars.
Two months later, Henderson unexpectedly passed. He was five days shy of his 66th birthday. Saturday, fans will take the 66th Avenue offramp and drive into the arena to celebrate one of the greatest lives Oakland, the Bay Area and baseball have ever cherished.
